004 – Lucy Eckley – Building Your Brand Story

Ex-financial services corporate turned entrepreneur Lucy Eckley helps businesses build and tell their brand story. Lucy has a 7-step framework that she talks us through and helps us write the hardest page on our website; the about us page.

Hello and welcome back to the lead generation for financial services podcast and we’ve got a cracking episode today I’ve got Lucy Ackley with me and she is x corporate financial services. She now helps people tell their brand story. She’s got a free resource on how to write the hardest page on your website as the About Us page will be dropping links in there for that as well. So without further ado, let’s dive in and meet Lucy. So you have got we were chatting earlier this week. And you’ve got like a seven point framework that I want to talk about when it comes to getting your story across. But before we go into that, can you tell us a bit more about yourself how you got into it and your background as well? Yeah, so my background is actually financial services

and on the marketing and communications

side so I started my marketing career in a retail bank

in a marketing comms campaign team. So I kind of you know, learned all the all the theory or strategy behind it running campaigns for small business customers then moved on to the pensions industry and also worked in insurance and investments so kind of really well versed in the financial services world so I know all the all the challenges that that exist out there in the marketplace and other regulatory challenges all that all that kind of stuff

and you know did all the marketing qualifications and was a conditional Malcolm’s person that I took a bit of a random sidestepped into something called internal communication so anybody’s ever worked in a big organization you’ll know that’s that’s the stuff where the leaders are trying to share with you what the business is all about what the strategy is, you know, product launches all this kind of stuff getting often in my case, thousands of people kind of on board with with the same messaging.

So did that for number years. But that really taught me you know, with all the campaigns that I did in marketing, they often have long lead times and, you know, budgets like kind of stuff, kind of doing the same thing internally. But you’ve got to do it over a much quicker timeframe. You’ve got to get to know your leaders, you’ve got to get to know who that audience is, what their goals are, and how to kind of deliver that quite quickly. So that really set me up really well for for kind of going independent, which is what I did eight years ago. So yes, all right. Okay. Yeah, independent for eight years, like you know,

lots of people who, who spend a lot of time working in house in corporates, you get to the point where you’re delivering on somebody else’s brand and living somebody else’s story every day like and I just reached the point volunteer bit in variety and wanted to use all those skills I’ve learned to to help a bigger range of businesses really fantastic. What sort clients have you gotten the moment What are they sort of they kind of siloed printers on a like SMEs or

corporates have

a really interesting mix actually, from one end of the spectrum to the other. So when I launched eight years ago, I started as an independent consultant continuing to work in that internal comms space. Actually, often in financial services with some really big, you know, kind of

big brands that that, you know, will know, and I still working in that space, and I find it really challenging and really energizing and, and interesting, but increasingly, I work at the complete opposite end of the scale, which is people like me, if you like, so, so people who’ve worked they’ve got a specialism a profession that they’ve sort of played for someone else for number of years, they’re now doing that independently because I just got this great mix of sort of business background marketing comms background, but then having established a consultancy, and I know what it’s like so increasingly, I work with those one person independence, helping them build their personal brand and their brand story.

Fantastic well our group are going to love you your your your background and I’ve been talking to them about personal branding and getting this off but actually having someone with this framework that we’re going to talk about and you’ve got you did a blog post recently or there’s like a download isn’t there or is totally free where it’s helped the guidance on probably the hardest page on your website the About Us page is that right exactly that so um, I find it’s it’s you know, there were two times and people tend to come to me and realizing it a bit of help one is when they sit down to write their website and I think anybody who’s ever tried to do that particularly right that about page which feels like it’s all about you and you know particularly you know, if you’re British you don’t really light shining the spotlight on yourself and and you know, we’re a siloed bunch sometimes we don’t really like going this is me I’m I’m great at what I do and actually your about page doesn’t have to be

Like that

it’s it’s actually the complete opposite it’s it’s you know, potential clients want to know about you for sure. But they really want to know about you in the context of how you can help them so I have this formula again for the about page that really just helps you go through that process that will engage with your clients so start talking about them

you know, so many of us make the mistake with our about page but the first word is are

actually the first you know, the first few sentences should be about you to you, the customer awesome some questions to all the men getting to identify themselves, then you can go and explain a little bit about who you are and how you can help them.

Have you got an example of like any client or your own or what you do for like us or have that have that kind of first sentence. Yes, the first sentence really isn’t so I can identify in questions so you know

It’s something like you know are you are you an independent consultant who wants to stand out in your industry wants to get known as the go to expert and he wants to work with more of your dream clients that you love working with every day so my my audience read that and go well yeah working independently of course I want to work with more clients that I love every day and of course I want to get known as as the expert but he got a couple more questions. Yeah Wouldn’t it be great if you could all do all of this just by being yourself because that’s really what I teach people to do. Yeah,

I’m really actually has all of this, you know, wealth of information and unique this within themselves. It’s just finding a way to draw it out. Absolutely. And I think I think everyone kind of knows this because especially in financial services, and especially a lot of the brokers that I speak to a lot of their best business comes through referrals because it’s and it’s and I spoke to a guy the other day he’s like, I’m not

Know for my brand name I know as Johnny, the mortgage guy and I’ve got this other brand name.

So I think everyone kind of agrees and gets it but we don’t know a lot of people do it. I think by default we do something completely different Don’t we? Well, something funny happens when we stopped communicating for business so you know you mentioned that you love video but you don’t love writing so much and this happens a lot of people when I’m when you sit down and write something is kind of like a switch that clips in your in your head and we’re going to different mode and think that we have to be formal and we have to sound like everybody else and we have to use long sentences whereas actually it is just totally about communicating in the natural normal way that you would so how you write should should echo how you speak and you know the aim with the brand story wherever you’re using it and sharing it is that if somebody has watched your videos and beta blog post I read your website then they finally you know, happy

First introductory meeting with you they should walk into that room or during that video call being as if they’ve already met you in your you know each other. Well, absolutely I can vouch for that other, my business has transformed the moment I started featuring myself and I, I say, I like video. If I could get through my day without doing it and still get the same amount of business. I’d be happy off camera and I hate having my photo taken. But I’ve just had so many conversations where people have said just the fact that you put your face out there, you’re confident enough to be the face of your business that speaks volumes just on its own. And then it is all about relationships, and I think no more so in financial services. And it’s it’s trust, isn’t it? And I don’t think people trust brands as much as they do like real human beings. No, I absolutely agree. I think you know, trust trust in big brands trust in financial services, probably, you know.

As you know, a little bit of a low point back to say Florida trust in individuals is therefore all teams. More teams, you know, is is more important than ever. And I think people are looking for that more, more so than ever. And I think in an industry where maybe products and solutions have relatively similar almost, you know, commodity type products, the things that make the difference and make you stand out are those personal connections and exactly that, you know, Johnny, the mortgage guy or whatever, I’m sure there’s a couple of other things that that clients remember about Johnny, you know, he’s the one that I don’t know drinks, flat whites or

the pig funky glasses or whatever it is, they would just, you know, one or two things that can make you kind of memorable and that’s one of the things that I always ask my clients and when we work together all the questions I asked what do you want to be remembered for? Amazing

Love it ya know that that Jamie got there is like so much about it means he’s he’s Welsh that lives in

Liverpool I think it is love rugby the so many elements about him that because we had it we we just started chatting about red beef ages although we would talk about business and that so yeah absolutely fantastic okay brilliant so that About Us page we can will drop the link to that downloads we will come work through that

and then I want to talk about this this framework so you got seven kind of steps to it can you let us know what the seven steps are and then we’ll start with number one and what freedom yeah so the seven steps are reconnecting with your passion finding your values deciding on your dream client and that is a decision rather than buying them and

unleashing your personality and I’m going to love talking about that in a minute because that’s one of my one of my favorite areas brilliant sharing your story.

Your backstory, how he ended up where you are today, sharing your client stories, because your brand stories not just about you, there are other people involved in your brand story. And then the final things about finding your voice. So it’s all the stuff that we just talked about right now it’s sounding like you not sounding like does anybody else in your industry

brilliant, because I think I mean that that last one, I think there’s, it’s so easy to see, or someone’s doing really well, let’s do what they’re doing. And then I guess if you don’t know why they’re doing it, or is not

authentic, then that’s all I’m jumping ahead of myself. So that’s number one. And I go in a bit more detail if we can, yeah. So, finding, you know, reconnecting with your passion remembering why you set up a business and you know this is what I find happens with a lot of people that you know, which we choose. We choose a profession when industry or we set up a business all excited about it start with and then we kind of get into the day to day deliverables.

And all the all the demands and it’s easy to lose sight. Sometimes it’s a what’s actually driving us. So, you know, if you’re, if you’re running a mortgage broker business or you know, a financial advisor, you know, probably why you’re doing it is because you want to see people move into their dream house, you want to help people have their retirement, they want all of this, you know, all of this stuff that makes you excited to serve your clients. And the thing about finding and reconnecting with your passion is that we can all go out there and talk about the features and benefits of products. But if I as a potential client and and choosing between somebody who’s just kind of just going about their job and doing you know, doing a really good job of it, versus somebody who’s clearly got a passion for what they do, and clearly got a passion for helping me as a consumer then I’m I’m going to be more drawn to the person who says, You know, I love doing this every day I come to work and I help my clients and do this. It’s in there.

can go actually beyond your your business so you know where are the parallels between how you help your customers and what you want to get out something in your life as well?

Fantastic yeah and that all pretty much all the brokers that especially especially the mortgage ones that they do get a real buzz from especially the home movers or the first time buyers have such an emotional and big thing. And so how would I authentically get that across? Because excuse me,

because anyone could say Oh, I love it when people leave home how how’s the best way to get get that cross? Yes, it is literally by by being by being authentic and and in staying it in the way that you honestly believe it and that can be difficult to get down on paper. So if people struggled during this and I often encourage them just to have a friend or family member whatever just you know, interview them so

Just get your get your phone out and just have a have a chat with somebody and just say what you want, why do you do this and and, and tell the story to that and you’ll get little nuggets that will come out in that conversation when you’re not overthinking it. And then it’s just about making it into into your content. But also, you know, you use this story not not just when you write, but in every situation whenever you speak white about your business, so you can use it to tell stories, for example, and you go to a networking event. Tina, that dreaded intro that you had to do a networking event can use it to tell a little story about how you’ve helped somebody and then that passion and the why behind it becomes really, really clear. Everyone say absolutely. And a lot of that reminds me of my favorite book, start with y by Simon cynic. And I just visualize myself doing those awkward intros and actually

literally talking about why

it’s easier to talk about I think.

Less cringe and I think it has bit more bit more power weight behind it. Definitely. Yeah. So I find it quite interesting. I went to, to talk the other day where where the start with why came up and we’re talking about, you know, obviously that whole scenario big business struggling with the wise sometimes my experience with independence is actually they’re really clear on their why sometimes it’s the what and the how they struggle to articulate so they really clear why they’re doing what they do it’s actually, you know, articulating how their service will benefit their clients and the tangible outcomes they get that they struggle with more so I find that really interesting. So really brilliant. Okay, so what’s next then after we’ve covered that off so the next thing is kind of getting clear on on your purpose and your values. So what’s really important to you in terms of how you run your business and it’s an independent it’s going to correlate with what’s important to you in your your life as well so

When I worked in into the corporate world, and we had valleys, and I was like, Oh, you know, people tend to roll their eyes a little bit, because it’s quite hard to find valleys that really define a big organization. But I kind of really gone full circle when when it’s individuals running a business that is so important to you to just decide what is fundamentally important to you, the way you run your business and the way that you live your life. And and this is really helpful in terms of attracting the right clients to you and also working with the right people. So you’re taking people on to help you out either outsourcing bringing people in as employees, then your team, having clear values helps you attract the right people. And in my experience, if you meet somebody where you’ve got a project that comes your way, like

something just doesn’t feel like it connects if you’ve if you’ve got

valleys, and I normally say pick three to buy work.

It’s that, you know, describe what’s the most important to how you work and, and I would try and always say try and go beyond what I call the hygiene one. So, you know, obviously we expect people to be trustworthy, we extend to be honest, it’s that to be, you know, delivering on what they say. So, look for those things that will set you apart and just be a little bit different.

And

again, how do you get that across? You probably don’t want to list them on your website and say on values actually, that yeah,

it’s about having there was a sense check and making sure that they come across in how you communicate

awesome in our proposal document. We have like a thing called a customer charter, which kind of essentially as got our values about transparency and things like that

but we are supposed to be cutting use that for if there was you know, because it’s in that proposal This is

You know how we unless things that we expect from our customer as well as within, so not just our values is kind of what you can expect from us and what we can expect from you. But we do that in the kind of the sales process rather than in the website. And a lot of it is for those ones that we know are definitely going to work with us. And we can draw back to them if something happens, or there’s like we need to, maybe we’ve maybe we’ve made a mistake. And we’ve said, so the client, we’ve got full transparency. So it’s, we then refer back to it and say, Look, we’ve got to be transparent and say, This is what happened if that makes sense. So we kind of use values my I’ve got a business mentor, and he tells me I should be putting them on the wall in the office and things like that, and always referring back to them. So you can be consistent, I think. Yeah, I think so. One is being consistent. And you know, what is one thing having them on the wall, which is what a lot of big businesses do is actually living them every day and making sure that people do use them to to guide decisions and that kind of thing. But yeah, I think that that’s important.

Exactly like you said, in terms of having that agreement with clients because, you know, successful people to people business is based on those long term relationships. So you want to make sure that you’ve got that understanding with the right type of clients to start with. Absolutely fantastic. Okay then so what’s where do we go next well, leads us really nicely onto onto finding your ideal client,

you know, and everything that I do here is very you know, it’s not fluffy stuff it’s all about, you know, real real sort of sound marketing practice. So, we as you well know, you can be you can be you know, promoting your services to the entire world in the hope that somebody will will find you and and and sign up to work with you, but everything becomes much easier, particularly building that brand story. If you’re absolutely 100% clear who your client is that you are

wanting to work.

And like I said, with the building that relationship few, you want that to be something that continues over years and years and you continue to work really productively together. So I just work with people to help them figure out

if they’re already in business looking at their their client portfolio, figuring out who they’ve done their best work with, you know,

who they most enjoyed working with, because the two generally go hand in hand. You know, they’ve done the best work, they’ve had best time working together, the outcomes generally are the best. So who are these people? What are their characteristics? Where did you find them? Because that’s the basically want to go buy more of those people

and if they’re brand new in business, then you know, same thing but rather than being able to look back on previous examples, it’s really honing in on who that person is it sinking be on the demographics so when they get it back in the day, people used to kind of say, Oh, yeah, you know, it’s women between 35 and

living in this

This geographic area, whatever. But there were so many different ways that you can look at those common things that that by those clients together. So it could be their life stage. It could be could be their values. It could be, you know where they want to go next with their life lots lots of different ways.

Absolutely. And reminds me of like john Lee Dumas who has he has given a name to his imaginary customers avatar, he calls it these he knows the guys he talks about this guy going on his community so he’s created this person and what I do what I’m creating content so I imagine that I’m speaking to that person. So there’s a couple of people that first joined the group that I first had conversations with I always imagined that I’m speaking to them so I’m doing that today

so I find that currently who came up with that I think there was another podcast I heard they they said when they create a imagine the cameras I’m looking at a webcam now but I imagine that the the

The ideal customer exactly that I do exactly the same thing. I encourage them, like all my clients do do the same thing rather than that, just thinking you’re, you’re talking to a faceless camera. Imagine that you’re talking to that that person that’s your ideal client that has a name that you can actually visualize them getting there. Absolutely. And then as well, narrowing down and know exactly who they are, has helped shape our content. So it wasn’t

because we were before it must have been October, November last year,

we were only advertising to financial services, but our website was lead generation for anyone

but when we made that decision to know actually we’re only going to work in financial services it’s really helped our content and everything because we know exactly who who those people are. And then the court we’ve got a show called talking ads that we do every Wednesday and now where rather than that being ads for anyone we try and relate to

All the ads to how they can be adapted for financial services. It just makes it a lot easier.

So I can definitely vouch for that as well. Yeah. makes so much difference.

So okay, so I knew who my client is. And was it unleashing passion next door. Yeah, unleashing the power of your personality. So, you know, we talked about this at the beginning about, you know, us all being different. And This to me is is the big differentiators, particularly when you’re running a business on your own or, you know, a very small number of you that when you’re delivering services that are quite similar, actually, your personality has a massive impact. And it’s not just sort of how you present yourself through your marketing. It’s through everything that you do. So actually, it just it’s going to determine what the whole experience is actually like dealing with you because you’ll be different in meetings to somebody who’s different needs so you know, all these people that have the same experience as you

They’re not you so by just looking at what makes you different, so, you know, are you quiet reserved? Are you are you, you know, bit quirky, sort of very

energy be friendly, you’re probably just going to want to present yourself in in a slightly different way so that everything is very consistent. And that’s the most important thing really, with with building this brand story is that it creates consistency. And that’s what gives clients trust in you. Because every single part of your marketing every single part of your customer journey feels like you’re dealing with the same person and you know, getting competence. Absolutely. And I’ve had conversations with clients who have tried to get them in front of camera and they said all but some people might not like me, and I think it’s Chris Ducker that says you’ll attract the right people and you repel the wrong people because you don’t have to

do business with everyone. You just need to do enough business with the right people and you’ll have more fun and it’d be much more rewarding if you work with the people that are going to get get on with the so

that fear of missing out i think is negated by the attracting the right people 100% absolutely either that’s one of the reasons for doing it so you want to attract those people that are the best fit for you because they’re going to be your most successful clients and and you want to you know weed out at the earliest stage those ones that are not going to be the right fit for you because generally they will be the ones that you know

you spend probably most time with and you know just it just a not your most best most successful relationships going forward. Absolutely. Do you think there’s like a line that you do you think sometimes you because I

I said if you saw it but then the the summit that we went to Chris Duckers summit where you in the way you in the Facebook group and I did a video and it was a like a comedy one is the very deadpan It was like almost the office and that is more of my normal self around my friends and colleagues but I’m not like that at all in my business relationships because I feel that if I’m too much with that I’m actually put too many people off but I guess I I am my business personality that I would be in a meeting and I would be if they came to our office or a meeting rather than my battery self with friends if that makes sense. Yeah so you know there’s always the professional filter that you’ve got to turn it in. So I would always say that, you know cliche, but you know, you want to be the best version of yourself. So yeah, so they’ll be a slightly different language that you might use with your mates in the pub versus what you’re going to use.

With

with kind of client marketing client conversations, but

still I feel that you know this scope for for some of you to come through and it’s it’s very liberating compared to when you’re working in a big organization and you know these owners feel like you have to leave a little bit of your personality at the door when you come in when you’re building all of your brand. So visual and language and everything around you and you’ve really got the freedom to to completely make that about you. And they’re

fantastic. Excellent anything any other sort of tips in that area?

Um, I just think Be brave. So, you know, we all have that

the fear of turning people away just you know, it’s really scary, especially when you’re first starting out but it will pay off absolutely will pay off in the end. Yeah, no, totally, totally agreed. I don’t know anyone that has regretted doing it and I know all this successful

people that I know in terms of like having online success have done this.

So it’s not like a kind of a new thing that no one’s ever done.

So yeah, totally agree as well. Okay, so I’m lost on which number which,

number five, which is sharing your story. Okay. Um, so this is where your backstory comes in. So this is, you know, where people want to know, how have you ended up where you are. So, you know, how have you got this expertise to help that

so that’s professional stuff. Absolutely. And you know this this is really relevant people who have been working somebody else and now they’re starting out on their own so people often like well, but I don’t have it don’t have any kind of history as an independent what I feel vulnerable. So you know, the first the first thing I would say to people around building confidence around

That everything that you have done until now has brought you to where you are today. So So what qualifications do you have? What previous experience do you have either working in this industry or working in something else because people do switch into other things, but they will have like a personally and business experience that will be valuable to help them do what they do today. So that’s the professional side of it. Then there are often personal things you know, things in your your life outside of work that shape who you become. So maybe in the financial world, maybe you experience somebody who helped you achieve a big financial goal and that inspired you to go on your own journey to qualify and help other people that often happens, you know that people people want to help others in a way that they have come through a challenge and come out the other side themselves. So people want to know a little bit about that.

So Mike, sort of caveats on sharing your story.

It’s not your whole life story. It’s not a CV,

it’s the relevant things. So if you put yourself in your clients shoes and say, What would a client who wants to hire me what they want to know about me?

And then where can you bring in those things that will make you memorable. So, you know,

any just finding that sort of non cheesy way to bring in the things that you like doing outside of work that when people meet, you will go, Oh, that’s right. You’re the one that you know, likes traveling to South America, you’re the you’re the person who you know, wants to do this crazy skydive or whatever the things are just we’ve been mainly member No, absolutely, absolutely. It’s just reminded me Oh, I was just thinking while you were saying that it’s if you think about the question is if you’ve ever done like job interviews, the interviewer does often ask you about things about yourself outside of work. And I remember I was doing I did a contract for Thomas Cook and the the guy asked me

Like, do you like a beard? You like having a drink? And? And because I was like, Well, yeah, that you felt more satisfied by that answer than any of the other stuff about websites and takes. So yeah.

So I guess I think about these questions that were, I guess whether it’s a business meeting or that people often ask you about about yourself, and I guess pulling out those answers that you normally give back the things that define you. So yeah, the same same way that you might prep for job interviews is, again, what you want to be remembered for? So prioritizing those those things yeah, fantastic. Excellent. Okay. So we’ve anything else on on defining that that story, any any other kind of things that we can pull out?

I think what I would just say with that is,

once something’s out there, he can’t take it back. So it’s better to start you know, there were some people who, who have really fascinating stories to tell them and we’ll sort of

personal things that they’ve been through

and with that kind of thing, you know, it’s just worth starting less is more to stop it and getting comfortable with what you’re sharing. And if this this is something that you find really hard, then just start baby steps it at a time and see what resonates with people because probably not so relevant in this industry but in in some some worlds where, you know, people have been through a lot of personal transformation and lots of

trauma or whatever that they’ve been through. Once you have said that it’s you know, it’s out there in the public domain and maybe just also just having boundaries. So I think there’s personal stuff which people find interesting and it’s private stuff but definitely you know, you want to set some boundaries around you know, things a private to to you and your family and getting and that’s different for each person. There’s some people you know, we all sit on social media all the time.

Some people sharing everything costs and other people less so. So so you know just find what what, you know works for you and in those cases to you absolutely i think i guess if it feels awkward bringing that up in a face to face conversation then I guess that’s your kind of filter. If you’re having a conversation just blurting out all this happened to be awesome if that would fill unnatural I guess it’s the stuff do you want to hold back and if you’re going into like me to go then you can make thing Oh, my client brings brings that up or sitting down my client will read this about me does that make me feel uncomfortable and that’s maybe where you know you would be trying to share and stuff outside of your comfort zone? Absolutely. So I guess bring out some some little bits and then you can always you know, that’s not saying concrete you can see how they react to it. You can develop it goes all of this doesn’t have to be completely finished when you launch or tomorrow.

Today you can develop over time bring more things in, but you can’t take something away if it’s if it’s been out there. Absolutely. Yeah. So, you know, this is something that you create, you create once, but then you probably come back to it every three months or so. And, and you evolve it. It’s like your website your website’s never done it, unfortunately. So you know,

you do it once, but it doesn’t have to be perfect. And I think you know, that’s something else probably, I would say to people you know, we often we get hung up on we can’t publish something or we can, you know,

share a blog posts or whatever, because it’s not quite right

and whilst on the one hand you can’t take things back you can always you know, change and improve things so often getting it out there and publishes better than just having it in your head or certainly

could not agree more I could not agree more I like to get stuff done and then if you wait until things are never perfect, like you say your website’s never finished. Never going to be hundred percent perfect if it’s better than what you’ve gone.

Let’s roll with it. Absolutely. Yep. Excellent. Okay, so where do we go next? So we know now go on to your clients stories. So yes, occasion your brand story. But like I said there are other people who are involved in that and can actually help you share that story for you. So one of those is team members. So if you do have other people that work with you, then don’t be shy about giving them a presence. So what’s the deal with somebody other than you then you know, it’s great for those people to have a presence on your website, maybe your social media so that your clients can get to know other people that they will be dealing with and get to know a little bit about those people as well.

But really importantly is is your clients so this comes really down to case studies and testimonials because it’s one thing to hear from you how how great you are and how you’re different but it’s also great to get that social proof.

from people that you’ve helped and if you can make these clients as close to your ideal client

profile as possible, but it’s really going to help because what you want is for your potential clients to to read or watch a testimonial and go along either that person is quite like me they had a challenge like I had right now. So you know, maybe that maybe they’re an independent and self and they’re looking for a mortgage and they have absolutely no idea how they’re going to get war games but you helped you know, this entrepreneur or independent consultant to provide movies when they thought it was impossible for example. Yeah, so they are like many stories so what was the challenge they were facing How did you help them and what with the outcome that that client got and again when you’re starting out you might not have those but the quicker that you can gather those clients stories and share them on your website share the money on social media with client permission, obviously, anonymity

Give it to me and I sorry confidentiality that kind of thing as well

but real life examples what we relate to isn’t it again it’s like people absolutely how’s it going back to the earlier point about getting your team involved with I’ve just set a you probably can’t see it but there’s a whiteboard over there where I’ve got everyone’s name and we’ve targeted everyone’s a great one piece of content a week each and then say p was doing some videos yesterday on a rain without me involved Tom’s going to be doing some as well

because

yeah there’s there’s too much of me

me at the moment and then they’re the guys that are speaking to clients directly so we’re we’re definitely getting involved in that as well and and then coming back to that client story we have gotten like a if there are like common actually I guess it’s because you’re solving a problem it if there’s a common pain that you solve its as well as the testimonials it’s talking about that

And pay that you resolve. Absolutely. And I think, you know, that really comes through when you’re looking at the, the ideal client piece. So it’s either client here is a client, what are they? What are they grappling with? What’s their pain points? What are their challenges? How do you solve it? What tangible outcomes did they get? So that’s very much part of that ideal client process. So you know, you can answer that on your website in a relatively static kind of way but obviously gives you great content opportunity as well so all those questions that you know people regularly ask you keep a bank of those and that’s that’s what you can use your videos, be a blog posts, etc. Fantastic. Excellent. So and then we on to the semi final of the final one is about finding your voice. So you know, this is this challenge of not just kind of switching into business mode but

my experience

lots of businesses

It I really think hard about what they want their brand to look like visually. And I think that’s often because, you know, we can’t do that ourselves. We most of us can’t design a logo, we can’t, we can’t come up with a really great look and feel for our business. So we we invest in getting professional help with that. But we don’t tend to think so much about what do I want, you know, the, the written and spoken side of my friend to feel like how does it complement that visual Look, how does it you know, just encapsulate the whole field I want for my brand, my brand story. So it’s just about thinking about what type of language do you want to you. So in a financial setting, it’s always going to have a professional tone to reach some sort, but it can still sound like you and you can still have some fun unless you’re dealing with very, very serious

subjects. You know, we’re just we’re dealing with everyday life. So you can be conversational, you can be approachable.

So how I how I really approach this is just asking people to describe what they want that language to be. And once you describe what you want that language to be like, it makes it a lot easier. Could he say I wanted to be, you know, conversational, informal, then, you know, you just look at what you write and say, well, is that conversation or no, it’s not actually it’s quite stuffy. It’s quite traditional and you can take steps to make it much more manageable for people and I think this is a really really big area of opportunity and financial services if you can explain things in a way that people really gets and really talks to them and cuts out the jargon

then I think you know that’s a massive were standing out on a brilliant I’ve seen some really good examples in finance services as like, especially in life insurance. There’s one where they are, I guess it all of it comes back to knowing the client or knowing the customer because there’s one where it’s for data

And it’s it’s very I think there’s like a dad joke or two in there is a very focused on is very different to you like your LG your you know your big brand and I think writes really well and there’s another one I forgot what it’s called I’ll put the link in

but it’s

it’s kind of makes a bit of fun about how people ask like too many questions of the getting the that’s the way they do it but it’s like

by the time you’ve basically you’ll be dead by the time you filled out the form whereas with us it’s and they’ve got really quirky things you basically choose what you want and so it’s like there’s funny things like when I do want a bronze statue and it says how much is that worth and adds it to what your policy should be. So it’s kind of completely different. I’ll send you the link and I’ll share the link with everyone else as well.

But yeah, do you agree that for me it feels like knowing my customer and

First, and all of these things we’ve talked about, kind of relate back to that. Yeah, so you’ve absolutely got to know know your customer. So it’s, it’s the, it’s the matching of you and your customer. Yeah,

because it’s a little bit chicken, chicken and egg because who your ideal client will be is largely determined by who you are. But you have to find that that meeting point

and and it’s exactly when you said with your language with everything else knowing your customer first enables you to create everything with them in mind and the outcome that you want to have in mind.

Yeah, fantastic. Excellent. Okay, so we’ve covered a lot of ground there’s so much really, I’ve learned kind of loads already. And so is there anything else if there’s one thing you want people to take away just one thing that you want people to remember? What would that be yourself?

Yeah simply that so you’re you’re unique nobody else can do what you doing quite the same way so you know don’t be afraid to kind of looking within yourself a bit needs a little bit of introspection before you then start to look out with so I just say be brave to to be yourself and can stand out with your uniqueness yeah i think it’s it’s bravery is that is the thing isn’t it but once you’ve done it and you get used to it it’s fine but I remember taking that first step and first put in my photo on front and center and fill in a bit really awkward about it but you see and get get used to it and then the benefits you get from it the more business you get and when you’re in that zone where you know if I if I take this off I take me away I’m not going to get as much business then yeah so that’s a good place to be definitely it is scary when you get started the show and when I started doing video you know hated it and here to say myself video but I think it was a new printer that that you and I at and somebody said

Talk that the first hundred videos at practice so you know it’s you know it’s about not being too hard on yourself as well and it will go and your clients will be will be you know they weren’t be anywhere near is is hard on you if you are yourself you know they’ll just be impressed to see you out there absolutely look at every successful video person’s first video and compare it to weather is now you get better every day you know that’s just the skill all of it is

definitely brilliant excellent so where can I find you online where’s the best place to connect with you and can you give us your website address as well yes so you will find me at build your brand story.com and then you will find me all over social media Lucy Eckley

condition yes

I like different things because I was I don’t like Twitter but I’ve got Twitter so and then it was late to Instagram so all manner of a difference as amazing. You’ve got the so

Literally, if I’m on Instagram, Twitter, Lucy actually okay to have an unusual second name. I think I’m quite active on LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram. So whatever is your social media choice and come find me there. Fantastic. And then we can go, if we go to build your brand story.com, we can download that guide on how to write my About Us page. Is that right? Yeah, straight on the homepage, or find it on the homepage. Excellent. Okay, brilliant. I’m going to go download that now. Because I need to work on mine. Definitely after this discussion.

Brilliant. Thank you so much for your time. It’s been awesome. Thank you so much for having me. No worries. Exit. I will speak to you say so. Hope you learned loads. I certainly did. I really enjoyed that conversation release. I’m sure we’re going to get her back on. Sure. We get on our show talking ads as well. So if you want to see these interviews alive on Facebook exactly when we do them if you join our Facebook group, it is lead generation for financial services, loads of other hints and tips and things going on there as well. It would be amazing.

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